Steppenbeck: "The results of the experiment indicate that 54Ca's first excited state lies at a relatively high energy, which is characteristic of a large nuclear shell gap, thus indicating that N = 34 in 54Ca is a new magic number, as predicted theoretically by the University of Tokyo group in 2001. By conducting a more detailed comparison to nuclear theory the researchers were able to show that the N = 34 magic number is equally as significant as some other nuclear shell gaps."

REFERENCES

A brief description is given under "Magic numbers" in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Dictionary of Science (Simon and Schuster), see the entry for "Magic number".